JP Publication of Application No. 2010-16199 (Patent Document 1) discloses an example of a storage facility such as one described above. The facility of Patent Document 1 includes a plurality of storage sections for storing containers, and inactive gas supply passages each of which supplies inactive gas, such as nitrogen gas and gaseous argon, to the corresponding one of the plurality of storage sections. And the inactive gas is supplied to an inject portion through the inactive gas supply passage, and the inactive gas is injected from the inject portion into the container to supply the inactive gas to the interior of the container stored in a storage section.
In the storage facility of Patent Document 1 described above, problems, such as an occurrence of oxidization etc. of the semiconductor substrates stored in the containers are alleviated by supplying inactive gas into the container when the container is stored in a storage section, and thereby discharging oxygen gas, and vapor, etc., which are not beneficial in controlling the quality of the semiconductor substrates, to the exterior of the container from a discharge portion.
Thus, a storage facility is known which would help prevent quality degradation of the articles in containers by supplying inactive gas into the containers stored in storage sections thereby removing the gas previously existed in the containers.